Spreading the rugby gospel in Croatia

*On this weeks edition of “The Sporting Life”, Andrew talks to Alan Moore, an Irishman who has helped establish a rugby club in Knin, Croatia. After numerous legal and administrative battles getting the club off the ground, Knin are now actively recruiting Irish people to help develop the game in the Dalmatian hinterland. This Thursday the interview will be broadcast in full, so contained here are just some smaller facts.

The opportunity to play rugby outside of Ireland doesn’t come up too often for many people. However, such a prospect has become a reality thanks to the formation of a rugby club in Eastern Europe, which is now looking to Ireland for help to develop it further. So, pack the bags and head to Croatia, because the opportunity of a lifetime can become a possibility overnight.

Championship attendances prove rugby still has a long way to go

Leinster celebrated being the best supported team in the Magners League for the second season running, but as gate numbers in lower league English football proved, rugby is still the poor cousin of the round ball game.

Ireland beat Warwickshire in Belfast

Ireland secured their first win of the Championship season with a fine victory over the English county at Stormont. However, despite the comfortable win, priorites still lay further afield for Irish cricket.

Ireland fail to look forward

Interim coach Michael Bradley has chosen damage liability over player development for the unforgiving tour of Australasia this summer.

Mixed fortunes in the Magners League

Last week may have heralded a new dawn in Irish rugby with the resignation of Eddie O’Sullivan, but for Ulster and Connacht, the familiarity of another painful defeat leaves them propping up the table again.

Two codes of rugby gradually becoming one

In 1895, a dispute over player payments led to the creation of two codes of rugby. For the first time in those 123 years, the two vaguely similar games have never appeared so close. Are the Experimental Law Variations to blame?